This Ontario election campaign features three leaders of mainline parties who are not pro-life. Neither are their parties.

Unlike the United States where a voter can directly elect the president, our system works in a different fashion. We elect individual candidates and the party with the most candidates elected, usually gets to form the government. The leader of that party, in this case, becomes premier of the province.

So, it is incumbent upon all of us to protect democratic rights and get out and cast an informed vote.

It has been the strategy of Campaign Life Coalition, for the most part of the last 30 years, to encourage pro-lifers to vote for candidates who stand firmly on the crucial life issues.

By electing to public office sufficient principled candidates, regardless of their party affiliation, we will get a responsible government, which will restore full legal protection to all of its people, unborn, handicapped, elderly at risk or hale and hearty.

Unfortunately, there are some people who claim to be pro-life who reject this strategy. Over the years, I've heard it all: "Why do you support pro-life Liberal candidates?" "Why do you support pro-life Conservative candidates?" Why do you support candidates for the FCP, CHP and independents when they have no chance of winning?"

Simply put, if we can convince enough people that support for the pro-life issue is the most crucial issue facing society today then we will have sufficient candidates elected to turn the tide.

Canada currently has a fertility rate of around 1.5 children, when the replacement level is 2.1 live births per woman. This means that we have to continue to rely upon immigration to provide the workforce needed now and in the future to keep our social programs in place to care for the sick, unemployed and elderly. The tap will run dry, as most of Western Europe is dying of old age and they too will need to attract more people from third world countries. Next on the firing line will be the sick and aged, as declining health care dollars will force the legalization of euthanasia.

After some initial success getting responses from candidates before the election was formally called, the pace of returning questionnaires was slowed once the Ontario provincial election was formally called on September 10th.

Campaign Life Coalition's Toronto office and local and regional contacts are canvassing all of the candidates to receive their completed questionnaire and these responses. Answers to the questionnaire will be published on Campaign Life Coalition's webpage which can be best accessed by going to LifeSiteNews.com. If you have internet access or know someone who does, please use this resource to become more informed about your local candidates; it will be updated right through election day, so if the information you need isn't there the first time you look, please check it again (and again).

If you don't have internet access, contact your local CLC office or the Toronto office at (416) 204-9749 or 1-800-730-5358 to see how your local candidates stand on the issues. Every election CLC receives hundreds of calls from pro-life voters requesting information about their candidates. We remind supporters that the only party with a pro-life platform and that requires their candidates to be pro-life is the Family Coalition Party.

But there are candidates in other parties that are also pro-life. They have signed our questionnaire and have otherwise indicated their willingness to support pro-life legislation. Some include promising new candidates such as; Bob Seneschal (PC) Guelph and Dennis Pommainville (PC) Glengarry- Prescott-Russell.

Please make a careful vote, but vote pro-life.

Pro-life candidates deserve your support during the campaign, too. If a candidate is pro-life, contact their campaign office and let them know you are supporting them. Also, consider putting up a campaign sign on your lawn, volunteering for their campaign and even donating to the candidate's campaign. They will remember you for this and will be more likely to positively respond to you concerns in the future, if elected.

That's how politics works.